International global health education for doctor of physical therapy students: a scoping review

Abstract

Background

The topic of international global health (IGH) education for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students in the United States (US) has become more popular in recent years. Despite the expanding interest and wide variability in programming, little has been published to establish educational best practices for IGH for DPT students.

Objectives

The purpose of this scoping review was to identify, organize, and methodically review existing publications since 2010 in IGH education for DPT students.

Methods

Using the scoping review format based on the PRISMA ScR checklist, we searched the professional literature for all levels of evidence from the following databases: PubMed, Embase (embase.com), and CINAHL (EBSCOhost), with hand searches of key reference lists. The texts were English only and pertained to both IGH and US-based DPT programs. The researchers initially identified 592 studies; 27 met inclusion criteria for data extraction after eliminating duplicates.

Results

The primary purposes of IGH in these academic programs included one or more of the following: service learning, clinical education, cultural immersion, and research. No one educational program was identified to be more effective than others.

Conclusions

The results demonstrated significant breadth and variability of IGH education for DPT students. Future studies should explore the efficacy and efficiency of program types using established outcome measures to maximize students’ clinical and emotional preparedness for IGH work and enable comparisons across programs.

Keywords:

• International Global Health
• physical therapy education
• curriculum
• interprofessional education

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge Allison White, SPT for her work gathering and organizing the search results for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cara E. Felter

Cara E. Felter, PT, DPT, MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science. She has training in Physical Therapy and Public Health, and she is currently enrolled in a PhD in Health Professions Education program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Leslie B. Glickman

Leslie B. Glickman, PT, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science. For many years, she held full-time teaching and leadership roles and now provides educational and research consultation on selected international projects. Dr. Glickman conducted international funded research and teaching consultation for several years and most recently created and edited the new textbook on Malawi: Its history, culture, environment, education, and healthcare.

Kelly Westlake

Kelly Westlake, PT, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science (PTRS). She has experience in teaching, research, and international service learning. She is also the Director for the PTRS PhD in Rehabilitation Science.

Andrea G. Shipper

Andrea Goldstein Shipper, MSLIS, is a Research, Education and Outreach Librarian at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She specializes in comprehensive literature searching required for systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses.

Victoria Marchese

Victoria Marchese, PT, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Chair at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science. Dr. Marchese has extensive teaching, research and service experience in pediatric physical therapy that started over 20 years-ago with her PhD studies in Rehabilitation Science funded by a Maternal and Child Health Leadership Training Grant.